Still Time to Make a Choice

During the current political campaign for Village of Niles mayoral and trustee seats, a number of bloggers and political commentators have brought up a series of questions for Trustee Candidate Louella Preston. Principally, these questions have related to her lack of knowledge pertaining to the illegal actions of Mayor Blaze, improper use of Village funds regarding outgoing village managers, the recent improper client billing by the Family Services director and questions regarding receiving free cable service at the Village’s expense. Voters have also expressed shock at the $250,000 effort she headed to plant flowers around the Village while the Village budget runs in a deficit mode and in a time when Village jobs have been cut due to budget shortfalls. It has also It has been noted that Trustee Preston’s twenty eight year reign on the Village Board has resulted in a curious lack of any substantial accomplishment. Upon attending recent board meetings and viewing the online video of previous meetings it seems that her contributions amount to an overblown, over detailed, sonorous recitation of that month’s SWANCC board meeting notes and a propensity for pointing out inconsequential typos and misspellings.

Trustee Preston’s reaction to these questions has been a time honored political practice of ignoring the questions and hoping that they just go away. To the question of her ignorance over decades of improprieties by Village representatives while she has held office, her response has been to ignore the question and just hope it goes away. To the question of how she can seek to begin her third decade as a do nothing trustee while promising to bring term limits to the Village Board, her response has been to ignore the question and just hope it goes away. To the question of how she can justify chairing a committee whose purpose was to spend $250,000 of the Village funds to plant flowers while the budget shortfalls continue to plague the Village, her response has been to ignore the question and just hope it goes away. To the question of free cable at the Village expense, well you get the idea.

The voters of Niles still have time to make a choice. We can reelect Trustee Preston into a third decade of ignorance over serious Village issues or we can choose a candidate who will govern with open eyes and contribute to the running of the Village. To the question of Trustee Preston’s bid for another term, I say the voters of Niles should ignore Trustee Preston and hope that she too, will just go away.